Fantasies of Singledom - by Kate R Gilchrist (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines the representation of the single woman in contemporary popular culture and places it in juxtaposition to the experience and self-narratives of single femininity in everyday life across the US, UK, and Europe.

Book Synopsis

In Fantasies of Singledom, Kate R. Gilchrist examines how the representation of the single woman manifests itself in contemporary popular culture across the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe, placing this image in juxtaposition to the lived experiences and self-narratives of single femininity in everyday life.

Gilchrist skillfully brings these two conceptualizations of feminine singlehood into conversation with one another by incorporating in-depth interviews with twenty-five women living in London alongside critical analyses of eight cross-genre media texts which foreground single women. In doing so, she illuminates not only the ways in which women's experiences draw on or converge with media representations, but also where their narratives resist or rework such ideas, interrogating recurring themes of success, transformation, autonomy, silencing, invisibility, and-perhaps most prominently-the notion of the "ideal" femininity being a coupled one.

Building on research that has largely centered on North American contexts until now, Gilchrist also considers how these discourses manifest intersectionally, demonstrating the necessity of a multi-faceted approach in achieving a fuller understanding of how experiences of singledom are shaped by external factors. Ultimately, Fantasies of Singledom significantly expands upon and complicates existing theorizations of the relationship between cultural representation and gendered subjectivity formation in postfeminist cultural contexts.

Review Quotes

"Fantasies of Singledom is a compelling exploration of how single women navigate their intimate lives within a culture that simultaneously celebrates and disciplines single femininity. Carefully attending to women's personal-and often deeply painful-accounts, and offering an incisive analysis of popular media representations, Kate Gilchrist provides a powerful critique of postfeminist culture and its seductive fantasies. A highly engaging and timely contribution that significantly advances our understanding of the relationship between gender, subjectivity, and contemporary culture." --Shani Orgad, Professor of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

"What does it mean to be a single woman in contemporary culture? Why is she treated as both lacking and excessive, subject to momentary veneration and repeated pity, and why are the complexities of everyday life rarely depicted in media representation? In Fantasies of Singledom Kate Gilchrist picks apart these questions with eloquence and precision through in-depth interviews, sharp theorisations and timely media analysis to offer a fresh, rigorous and sophisticated perspective on the topic." --Jo Littler, Professor of Cultural, Media and Social Analysis, University of London, UK, and Author/Editor of Left Feminisms: Conversations on the Personal and the Political

About the Author

Kate R. Gilchrist is Lecturer in Digital Media at University College London's Department of Culture, Communication and Media, UK.